John MacNab

Four wealthy Englishmen are dying of boredom. Sir Edward Leithen, Lord Lamancha, Palliser-Yeates, and the irrepressible Archie Roylance have everything except purpose, so when Leithen's doctor prescribes adventure, they devise a scheme worthy of their privilege: they will become gentleman poachers in the Scottish Highlands, giving honest notice to the landowners before they hunt on their grounds. What could be more thrillingly transgressive? But when they set their sights on a remote castle and its elusive owner, the game shifts. The estate proves harder to infiltrate than expected, a beautiful woman complicates everything, and the poachers discover they may have become the prey of someone far cleverer than themselves. Part adventure, part social comedy, part meditation on what men will do to escape their own irrelevance, this is Buchan at his most polished: sharp-witted, unexpectedly moving, and utterly unbeatable.